How Do You Role Your&nbspSEO?

This post was promoted from YouMoz. The author’s views are entirely his or her own (excluding an unlikely case of hypnosis) and may not reflect the views of Moz.

Along with all the hot "technical" topics this year, like Universal Search and blended search in general, algo changes, social media, local and mobile search, and, most recently, Google's big crack down on paid text links, it also seems to have been a big year for background discussions (with employment being high on the list of topics over the last 12 months or so). On one hand you have all the moves within the greater searchindustry, and on the other hand, the jobmarket (including SEOmoz's Marketplace), both in regard to the needs and the opportunities.

As an industry, the last of these is both exciting and important. The positive status of the career market further demonstrates the legitimacy of the industry as well as the continual strengthening of the foundation of search marketing. There are roles in PPC and those in SEO, roles as independents, often doing A to Z, to in-house positions or specialty roles in agencies, working within a team.

November marks 6 months since I joined Netconcepts, so it seemed like a rather appropriate time to share some thoughts on at least one aspect of the search marketing career market that might be extremely relevant to SEOmoz readers--the role change of solo SEO to agency SEO. This is, after all, an industry filled with more than its fair share of solo practitioners, many of which have entered into search marketing from completely unrelated areas. And this may be of interest to those doing in-house work, or who are still in an unrelated position but are itching to make the jump.

With all this talk about the great opportunities and the need for good, smart people, what's stopping you? Fear, moving out of your comfort zone, not sure you have what it takes, or something else?

Let's explore this opportunity, but not with the standard "Top 10 Reasons," but with a real live example. I started my own company, Identity Developments, back in 2003, initially as a web development firm--actually, starting the business after getting my first web design client. Maybe you started in the biz this way as well. Step back--before that, I was working in a completely unrelated area doing product management and new product development in, of all places, the office products industry [interjection from Rebecca:Wernham Hogg or Dunder Mifflin?]. I entered into the web world at zero and taught myself XHTML, CSS, and table-less design. Add this to a sales and marketing background and learning and adding SEO services to my portfolio was a logical step.

6 months or so ago, there was an opportunity for me to join Netconcepts. What would this mean and why would I do it? More importantly, why would you?

Broaden Your Skills

Your clients may be smaller players, or perhaps within one industry. Working in an agency will probably expose you to bigger names, bigger sites, more challenging experiences, diversity of industries, and even a greater variety of types of sites. Of course, if you are working in-house somewhere, the industry diversity will probably be a huge change. More than just your technical knowledge and skills, working within a team environment can expand and broaden your professional skills as well.

Focus

Certainly if you've been in the solo SEO role, you know how challenging it can be to attain that laser-like focus. For one, you may be wearing more hats than you can even count... consultant, analyst, link builder, copywriter, administrator, sales and business development--and if you are doing design and development, there are several more roles there, not to mention that you might also be head coffeemaker and lead-trash-taker-outer. These can all be great roles to play, but not being able to focus deeply on any one of them limits the level of complexity and difficulty you can take on or the level of mastery you can achieve.

The good news though, is that if you are in this multi-role situation now, having this broad background or in-depth knowledge in any of these other areas will be an asset you can bring to the agency table. The challenge to SEO practitioners is to both master their craft and have a broad knowledge of everything else they come in contact with at the same time.

Exponential Knowledge

While the previous points are important, if you're like me, it is this last point that may lead your list, and perhaps one of the biggest reasons you continue to return to SEOmoz. Not to sound too cliché, but there certainly is a synergy that comes with working with others on a team.

Something that seems to run through many in the SEO community is the desire to share knowledge and to participate with others. This, perhaps more than anything, is what sets the SEOmoz community apart from every other SEO site. The added benefit of working in an agency environment over going it alone is the ability to bounce ideas off of your teammates.

Of course, by working in-house, if you are lucky enough, you may benefit from the team environment there as well. What may be harder to find though is exposure to the level of expertise that working within an agency can provide. This was, for me, both the prompt for exploring as well as accepting the opportunity to join an agency. Specifically, for me it was the ability to work with Stephan Spencer, the founder of Netconcepts, and PJ Fusco. Sure, I would love to work with Rand, but moving from Madison to Seattle wasn't an option.

In an industry still so new, so young, and so constantly changing, right now search marketing agencies may not only provide a great career opportunity, but access to and the ability to work with leading experts, unlike any other industry. It's hard to imagine a better time to work in search marketing, and perhaps, a more perfect time to consider an agency role, especially when most agencies are seeking new talent to bring onboard.

Great post! And it seems like the perfect opportunity to say that for me personally, you are in the top five commenters at SEOmoz in terms of quality comments. I always learn something from you!

I can relate to what you're saying. As a homeschooler, I enjoy teaching my kids without answering to anyone and I like making all the decisions myself. However, having taught at several schools in the past, I know how nice it was to be able to talk to other teachers, get advice, and share ideas. So there are pluses to both.

Being fiercely independent and opinionated, it's been hard for me to even let my husband be a part of my business. Yet, I must admit, that when I get his help or opinion, the end result is better than what I would have done by myself.

The non-compromisable (is that a word?) component of successful teamwork is that your team shares your sensibilities even if you don't agree on everything. Otherwise, teamwork can be agony.

well, what can I say but thank you for the compliment. I'm deeply honored.

I think it is one of the great things about SEOmoz... it generally brings out the best in all of us in our desire to help others. It truly is an example of getting more in return than you give.

Which is something that I also think working in a team doing SEO has done for me. Each person brings different experiences and talents to the table and we've been able to tap into that to bounce ideas and concepts off each other.

I think we will see this being even more important as the industry grows. I think it is already happening and has been, but will reach all new levels... that is micro-segmentation of search.

By this I mean that more of the rules and concepts we consider global will be broken down even more to micro levels. Think of this as the dialing up or down and algo-results tweaking that GYM and other major engines will be able to do. So more and more, the equation for success will continue to change so that what worked over here won't necessarily work over there or somewhere else. This is where a diverse knowledge and experience pool will be ever more critical.

Yes, I am in an interesting position, still operating my own business while working at Netconcepts. This was something that was important for me and I think brings additional value to Netconcepts... still provides me with hands-on experience in both design and SEO, and different client makeup and situations, resources, etc., all of which gives me an additional perspective.

This is also doable because there really is little to no client-crossover conflict. Completely separate client focus. We've laid out agreements that allow this to work. And with most of my time of course focused on Netconcepts work, most of my other work now is maintaining existing clients and picking up new clients who come to me. But it is all very limited to not get over-extended or interfer with the day job.

But yes, this is perhaps a bit unusual, and maybe even backwards... most people start a side job to move from the day job, not the other way around. That said, I'd caution anyone before taking on such an arrangement. It has to be managed carefully and you have to have the lifestyle that allows for this much focus and dedication.

As for the driving factor, much of it came from filling in the missing pieces from my own business... wanting to do more SEO and be less reliant on web design, bigger SEO projects and clients, and the exposure to the knowledge and expertise at Netconcepts. These are all things that are more challenging as a solo operator.

I'd say not having to go out and drum up business was a plus too, except that the majority of my business came to me anyway.

Certainly being able to work in a team environment was also a powerful motivator as well. For me it really is a mix of what I get and what I can bring to the table.

No, and I don't foresee it being an issue, in either case. In my own business, I've primarily focused on small to mid-size, mostly non-ecommerce businesses. Netconcepts is focused more on big name ecommerce clients.

We're really talking apples and oranges. We've also agreed on an arrangement where I run potential SEO clients past them for the green light to pursue. And if on the outside chance a client would look to move to me individually, which at this level of client would be rather doubtful, it's not something that I would accept.

This isn't the kind of thing that every employer would entertain, but if it is something that anyone would want to pursue, I'd encourage thinking it out first, laying down ground rules that everyone is happy with, and laying down the case for how it benefits the employer. But of course it helps to be in a non-competitive situation to begin with... otherwise, it would be a pretty hard sell.

EDIT - actually, just remembered, there was one instance where I received and RFP, less for SEO and more for a site redesign. In that case I knew that NC was also presenting on it so I declined the bid. I didn't have to, but this was the appropriate decision in my mind.

I think the biggest positive about working with clients is staying up to date with reality. There are many things that apply to a new site launch today, that simply are not obvious to anyone except for those who have launched a site in that time period. This stays true for other parts of the SEO pie as well... PPC, Organic, links, etc. All are changing constantly and someone who only has expedience with providing search engine optimization for a site six months ago, really isn't on top of the competitive angles of SEO right now.

I no longer take traditional clients, and I have found it very very useful in the past, as well as now, to launch my own sites. Since I have been doing this for awhile, I have the capacity to see how a brand new site responds to a link, as well as seeing what a six month old sites reaction to that same link is. I have launched one or two websites for about a year and a half now, and can say truly that it is very illuminating to have these different sites of different ages to help me observe search engine behavior.

Long story short, if you are not actively taking clients, I suggest that you launch a simple website every month or so.

Long story short, if you are not actively taking clients, I suggest that you launch a simple website every month or so.

SUGGESTED EDIT: Long story short, if you are not actively taking clients, I suggest that you launch a simple website every month or so, while sipping Maitais on the beach in Waikiki.

Seriously, Pat makes a good point. Not only do your own sites make a great testing ground, but a set of sites can bring you a steady stream of income even without any new client revenue. If they're successful enough, you might even be able to sell them at a later date.

I agree. Whether you are on your own, working within a firm, or even in-house, you should be doing something with sites on the side. I don't know that you have to necessarily be launching new sites all the time... in addition to everything else, I have a few sites on the side as well which have also been beneficial for first-hand knowledge, but I at least haven't had enough time to put the needed effort into them though.

What's great is there are few other industries where this would even be possible. A number of my peers at Netconcepts have sites of their own as does Netconcepts. These provide live examples and testing grounds.

And you're right, 6 months ago is soooo "last-decade" in Internet years. And regardless of your specialty, it's beneficial to play around some in other areas... PPC, affiliate programs, analytics, blogging, social media, static sites vs. dynamic, HTML and Flash. This world is both battle ground and playing field.

Actually, I've been thinking I should try to sell in the idea that as part of working for Netconcepts, we should allow for time and help each employee develop up their own site and get them earning at least $100K a year off it. Talk about great marketing and huge perk! Now you really do get to have your cake and eat it too.

I read this post when it first appeared but when I came back to it and saw there was a thumbs down, I figured I would come by and thumb up one of your comments in dissent to the person that found it necessary to thumb down a well written and thougthful post from someone that took a considerable amount of time out of their day to share a valuable personal experience.

I know it doesn't matter much and call me crazy but - I just don't get some people.

Thanks again and for that gracious observation and response, I saw your thumb and raised you one!

Hopefully the down vote was justified in someone's mind, for whatever reason. I'd much prefer that idea than just thumbing down because one can.

But sadly I think we've all seen far worse instances here so I guess it goes with the social territory. The redeeming point though is that I think a strong community can always promote the positives over the negatives.

I think it is tricky to look at a field that is hot now and say, well, that is going to be hot in five years. I remember working on Baan and SAP implementations back in the day - good coin and, boy, were they loooong engagements.

Usually in luxury spots like St. Louis in the winter, but, hey, cave diving in a salt mine, how cool is that?

Anyway, I always like to look at jobs for the portable skills they teach you. Not just "show up for meetings on time" (which is important) but what *things* you learned. An early job of mine helped me to learn how to write embedded C code (yep, I'm old) - something that was useful for a decade. Another job I learned how to write Sun installations scripts - not so useful ever again.

So I'd wonder about SEO work - what do you learn that should be useful in a decade?

If there was one thing that you could try to instill into those just entering the workforce, in any field, is to build your experience and skill set based on the journey, not the destination.

I certainly feel that has helped me. I've switched complete industries and careers a number of times, but have taken what I've built up with me and transferred the experiences.

I have no doubt that this industry will continue to be strong. It will continue to grow and evolve and will probably become seen as more of an area of traditional marketing. The unique aspect here of course is that it is much more than that and has a deep technical side as well.

But you bring up a good point that also hit on another motive for me on top of all the others that led me to Netconcepts... the future. Netconcepts is also a bit unique in that they offer more than just a traditional SEO solution. Currently my position and focus has been on the Natural Search Optimization side of things, which is consulting based. But Netconcepts also has a very exciting technology solution called GravityStream that can provide performance-based SEO through a search engine approved proxy delivery system.

I have to admit that my own understanding of GravityStream is still fairly limited, but it was exciting enough to see that it was unique and no doubt cutting the way into the future. In a nutshell, imagine being able to optimize sites that essentially can't be optimized (legacy CMS, not enough resources, too large, etc.) and being able to do much of this through automation.

Even without this, joining an agency and Netconcepts specifically still interested me for many of the reasons I mentioned, but this was some nice icing on the cake that I look forward to learning more about and being a part of.

I often find myself pondering my own place in SEO. I've worked at two agencies now as the entire SEO department in a single chair. To be frank neither has been terribly rewarding. The biggest issue: the lack of a connection between the sales department and the SEO department. Contracts are sold without my even reviewing the website in question.

My conscience tends to get the better of me, and I've just about had it with taking people's money when they don't know what they're paying for. I've been toeing the line with going solo or getting together an agency, but it's difficult to give up the steady paycheck.

Anyway, it's good to hear from someone who is admittedly a bit farther up the ladder than myself - it lets me know what I'm doing right, what I need to work on and where I might want to be headed. I suspect there are a lot of solo SEOs not unlike myself for whom the first couple of years have been lacking that "lazer-like focus" you mentioned above.

Ouch. Well I don't envy your position. As one who has worked in both Sales and Marketing positions, that disconnect between the two is all to common.

Working in SEO, or any kind of creative/custom service, needs a much tighter integration between the two... while the foundation may be the same, the exact delivery may vary greatly depending on client needs and wants.

Of course, in the solo realm, this isn't really an issue as you sit in both roles. In an agency situation, sales or business development needs to have a much tighter working relationship with those who deliver the services. When you aren't selling an off-the-shelf product, it's critical to make sure that the solution actually matches the needs and situation.

Hopefully this is something that you might be able to work into your current situation. Of course, it takes buy-in from the other groups, but hopefully everyone will benefit.

Yep - it's been a real cause of stress for me. Especially since these clients are sold a big promise of "ranking well in search engines" before anyone even has a look at their market or the structure/content/code of their website.

Consider the following situation: a contract is dropped on your desk that was sold for, let's say, $15K for twelve-months. There is no information in it about the website or company, just five selected keywords that they want to rank well for. After some quick queries you realize: they're already on Google page 1 for two of them. What do you do?

Anyway, I am making a real push internally here to change things. There has been some positive reaction to it, but in a situation where sales reps just want to get signatures so they can bring home the commission they don't respond well to a new guy rocking the apple cart.

Identity, what a great post. I'm solo, having worked first at a traditional ad agency, then as an in-house marketer (but not as an SEO). Now I'm thinking about going full-circle & starting my own "agency" in a few months. Like bigbuy, I'm interested in hearing what made you finally decide to take the jump to the agency world.

It seems like as a solo SEO, I actually have less RESPONSIBILITY, even though I wear more hats, than at my other position. In other words, the only person counting on me is me, which is less stressful & something I enjoy. But cash flow could definitely be higher if I expanded.

Good points. I think I too was looking to move to something bigger, but at least at this time, wasn't looking to expand my own business beyond myself... so working for an agency rather than broadening out to adding employees was the logical step.

At which point the responsibility extends to everyone on your payroll as well as the clients, which was more than I wanted to take on. In some ways I still have some of that, responsibility to clients both my own and Netconcepts, as well as responsibility to my teammates.

I think I've found that I have less time when I work for myself that when I worked for a large corporation. Since I received the same check every two weeks regardless of how many extra hours I worked, I found that I tended to cut off as close to 40 hours as possible, when possible, for obvious reasons. But working for myself, I find that I am up until all hours of the night and back at it first thing in the morning, and the strange part is that it certainly doesn't feel like "work" doing that, either.

What I find interesting is that, and I'm generalizing here, in-house SEOs seem to be paid better than agency SEOs. I'm trying to figure out why this is. Perhaps because the in-house folks are engaged in multiple activities outside of SEO that makes their perceived worth greater. Still, I think the opportunities for accelerated learning and establishing connections are greater as an agency SEO rather than an in-house SEO.

While I don't claim to speak for all people who work in-house, I will tell you about my own experience.

SEO is maybe 20-50% of what I am asked to do on a daily basis(depending on what's going around the office). I am also in charge of design(not saying I'm the greatest there), content, database updates, tech support, and handling customs for overseas shipments.

One of the SEO's I know was a salesman at a local Chevrolet dealership. He noticed they weren't ranking well in Google, talked to the manager, and was promoted to SEO for that business. He retained his duties as salesman, and added that to his already crowded schedule.

My point: While SEO's of our type may be the exception, rather than the rule, this may well explain the pay discrepancy that you see.

Seriously, it absolutely is a challenge, which is again why I don't necessarily recommend my particular approach.

But, I'm fortunate that I absolutely love what I am doing. Though there certainly has been sacrifices so it isn't a decision to be made lightly.

Honestly though, that may be one of the other benefits to working in a company versus solo... not only are you freed up from having to do every role of the business yourself, but in working with other people, those interactions bring about additional escapes. I've probably "gone out" more, in other words left work behind for awhile, over the last 6 months than I have over the last 2 years.

Even in my case, juggling both, I've managed more free time because it forces some additional structure into your life, and shifting gears between one aspect to another helps. I've also always been careful to not oversell in my own business because I wanted to make sure that my clients got the fair attention they deserved. There was probably more leeway there, but I was comfortable pushing it. And there's certainly more leeway in agency because you can tap other resources in a pinch much easier.

One of the bigger challenges was all the additional stuff that came with it, and in many ways why I've sadly not been as involved at SEOmoz as I would like or used to be-- just before joining Netconcepts I started writing a weekly column for a local business magazine in Madison and also became a volunteer counselor with SCORE, and through Netconcepts I was exposed to even more blogs and sites to read and follow than I already was, we have our own internal blogs that we follow and participate in, and now because of my work with Netconcepts, I'll be writing articles for MarketingProfs and am blogging on Searchlight at CNET.

I love helping others succeed and hopefully understand all this "stuff." So while I enjoy tossing some movies into the DVD, hitting the art galleries on gallery night, or a Friday evening at the Jade Monkey Lounge after a hard week, I don't see this all as the typical "work" or the need to escape...... but maintaining balance is perhaps one of the greatest challenges we all face within this industry.

Identity, the post was worth the time I spent reading. To be frank being SEO requires one to wear multiple hats. It would be nice if in your future posts you could list the white hat techniquines you employ. Thanks and Regards,

All very valid points Identity. Of course, it comes down to the individual, where they are in their career, what drives them, etc. Personally, I would never go back to working for someone else. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Absolutely. And something that is often overlooked... people jump at this career or that opportunity because they are there, but don't always consider whether it makes sense with where they are at in their careers.

I had some of the same concerns about working for someone else again. It really hasn't been that bad, a bit of adjustment... luckily Netconcepts has a very small agency feel and pretty laid back.

We work very hard, but play hard too. I did that too with my own business... except rarely played. Now, ironically, when you'd think I have less time, I'm doing both in both areas.

It is one thing I starve for: Exposure to people that are actively involved in the industry. I also started a web dev company after I landed my first commercial client and recently i have been dipping my toes into online marketing (3-4 months). I’m getting there but I imagine I have a couple learning curves to catch up! ;)

I have had plans to work within an organisation - perhaps I won’t ever need to but I do get the feeling that it is an excellent way to learn.

Currently I am learning so much on a daily bases because I am dealing with everything and everything is new to me - From commercial webdev to copy writing etc... I get the feeling that you know this drill. Sometimes its hard to tell if you are going off in the correct tangent. There is no one to really guide you.

So I live vicariously through Randfish, SEOmoz team and other bloggers daily renditions of the www. It is a great help. Thanks guys!

Yes, same general industry... though, at least for me, injection molded school boxes and letter-legal file totes and such was a little more exciting than 8.5"x11", multi-use, 20lb, ultra-brite white paper.

Though Dunder Mifflin or Wernham Hogg might have been a bit more interesting to work at. ;)